THE INTERNATIONAL Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called on the Israeli government today to allow its teams to enter Gaza following reports of newborn babies freezing to death.

“Recent UN reports of babies dying from hypothermia in Gaza underscore the critical severity of the humanitarian crisis there,” said federation secretary-general Jagan Chapagain.

“I urgently reiterate my call to grant safe and unhindered access to humanitarians to let them provide lifesaving assistance.

“Without safe access, children will freeze to death. Without safe access, families will starve. Without safe access, humanitarian workers can’t save lives.”

A seventh baby died of hypothermia today, the Palestinian territory’s health authorities reported, as most of Gaza’s two million people have been forced to see winter out in displacement camp tents made out of bedsheets and plastic.

Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatric doctor working in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that the terrible conditions are killing children.

“I’m watching children die in every possible way, whether it’s violence, cold, hunger, disease, all directly as a consequence of a carefully orchestrated Israeli military campaign that has been enabled by the United States and other countries that are turning a deaf ear and blind eye,” she said.

“We’re watching as parents wade through waist-deep water to collect their dead.

“I struggle for words to describe how horrific the situation has become and how deaf the world has become to repeated cries from humanitarian workers and mostly from Gazans themselves.

“They have documented on a daily basis their own genocide and have been killed for doing so.”

Israel killed at least 60 people in the Gaza Strip today, including three children and two high-ranking police officers, according to Palestinian and hospital officials.

One strike early in the morning hit a tent in an Israeli-declared “humanitarian zone” known as Muwasi, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in tents.

The Israeli military claimed that Hossam Shahwan, a senior police officer in Gaza who died in the strike, was involved in gathering intelligence used by Hamas’s armed wing in attacks on Israeli forces.

Another strike killed at least eight people in the central Gaza Strip. The dead were members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.

Elsewhere, Al Jazeera condemned the Palestinian Authority’s decision to bar it from operating in the occupied West Bank, saying the decision was in line with similar actions taken by Israel.

The Qatari broadcaster accused the Western-backed authority of seeking to “hide the truth about events in the occupied territories, especially what is happening in Jenin and its camps.”

The Palestinian Authority, which co-operates with Israel on security matters, launched a rare crackdown on anti-Israel militants in the urban Jenin refugee camp last month.

The authority has international support but is unpopular among many Palestinians, with critics portraying it as a subcontractor of the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian Authority announced the suspension of Al Jazeera’s activities on Wednesday, accusing it of incitement and interfering in Palestinian internal affairs.

Israel banned Al Jazeera last year, accusing it of being a mouthpiece of Hamas. Israeli strikes have killed or wounded several Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza and Israel has accused some of them of being militants.

Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera’s West Bank headquarters last year, but the broadcaster has continued to operate in the territory.

Al Jazeera denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its coverage.

Israel’s obliteration of Gaza has killed over 45,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, who say women and children make up more than half the fatalities.